Sell silver by post: find out which pieces are sterling first

Photograph the marks before you pack anything

A canteen of cutlery in its case, a tray gone grey at the edges, a pair of candlesticks: all the same dull colour. Some of it will be sterling and some will be electroplate, which is worth nothing as metal. Nobody can tell which from across a room. Photograph the marks and we will tell you what they suggest before anything goes in a box.

The marks on silver are small and usually in an awkward place. Turn a fork over and look along the back of the handle; turn a tray over and look near a foot. A teapot carries its marks on the base, sometimes under the handle, occasionally inside the lid. Photograph what you find, close and in focus, and send it on WhatsApp to 07369 296063.

That one picture usually answers most of it. A lion walking to the left beside an assay office mark means British sterling; a 925 on its own is the maker's claim to sterling, which is checked on arrival. EPNS, EP, A1 or the words “silver plate” mean a base metal with a thin layer of silver, which is not worth posting. A crown or a rose beside a lion is Sheffield's assay office mark on sterling, not Sheffield plate. Our guide to EPNS, A1 and Sheffield plate takes the letters one at a time. We tell you in writing what the marks suggest, with nothing to pay and nothing to agree to.

• The back of one fork, one spoon and one knife handle, close enough to read the marks.
• The underside of anything hollow: teapot, jug, tray, bowl, candlestick.
• Any piece stamped weighted, loaded or filled, because that word tells you something else is inside.
• The case or canteen itself if the set came in one, and the empty slots if any are missing.
• A wide shot of everything laid out, so we can see the size of the job.

If you would rather talk it through, or do not use WhatsApp, ring or text 07369 296063 (6am to 10pm, seven days); the same person answers. The photo guide shows what to photograph. Marks worn beyond reading are not a problem; the answer then waits until the piece can be checked in the hand.

Sterling, Britannia, continental and the marks that separate them

Four standards of silver are approved in the UK: 800, 925, 958 and 999. Sterling is 925 parts per thousand, and most British cutlery, teapots, jugs, bowls and jewellery are made of it. Britannia is 958 and softer; it was compulsory from 1697 to 1720, so early Georgian spoons can be Britannia standard. Continental pieces run 800, 830, 835 or 900 and carry their own national marks. A foreign piece hallmarked here before 1999 carries its office's import mark and a decimal fineness such as .925; since 1999 imports receive the same marks as British-made pieces.

Silver standards, and the marks you are most likely to meet

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Anything of 7.78 g or more sold as silver in this country should carry a hallmark, and a great deal of older, foreign and very light silver never did. On a modern British piece the lion is optional, so a full hallmark can be just the maker's mark, 925 in its oval and the assay office mark. We read the marks first and, where a check is needed, confirm them by the methods described on how items are tested; your offer records which were used on each piece. The guide to UK hallmarks shows each mark enlarged, and how to tell sterling from Britannia, continental silver and plate goes through the silver marks one by one.

How electroplate gives itself away

EPNS, electroplated nickel silver, is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc under a coat of silver a few microns thick. A1 is a maker's grade for that coat, not a fineness. Old Sheffield Plate is a sheet of silver fused onto copper and rolled out with it, made before electroplating replaced it in the 1840s. In all three the silver is too thin to be worth recovering, so these pieces are identified and posted back to you rather than bought. Old Sheffield Plate and good Victorian or Art Nouveau electroplate can still sell as antiques at auction, and if a piece looks early, we say so.

• The marks do most of the work. EPNS, EP, EPBM, A1, silver plate, plated, BP, or a maker's name with a plating grade after it, all mean plate.
• Plate looks like silver on an untouched surface, so worn edges, feet and handles are checked for base metal coming through.
• A plated fork is less dense than sterling, so a careful density measurement can support a reading of an unclear mark, though it is not decisive on its own.
• Pink or yellow patches on the high points are the copper or the brass showing through where the skin has worn away.
• A magnet picks out cheap plate on a steel base at once; sterling and nickel silver do not respond to it.

A canteen of electroplate can be good cutlery, worth keeping, passing on or selling at a local auction for what it is. It is not solid silver, so it is not bought here.

Candlesticks, knife handles and the pitch inside them

Many sterling candlesticks, trophy bases, dressing-table sets and knife handles are a thin silver shell packed with pitch, plaster or resin, often around an steel rod that stops them bending. What the object weighs and what silver is in it are two very different figures. Some are stamped weighted, loaded or filled; plenty are not. Older cast candlesticks are the exception: solid, heavy and often collected.

So a filled piece is bought on an estimate of its silver shell, stated as an estimate, never on what it weighs. Nothing is opened before you have accepted an offer, so the silver is estimated from the type of piece, its dimensions and the thickness of the metal where an edge can be measured. The method is written down and sent to you with everything else, and if you disagree with it you keep the piece. The guide to weighted and loaded silver shows a candlestick in section.

Pieces that are filled, or have parts that are not silver

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What decides what silver is worth

The answer is not a number. First, whether a piece is worth more as an object than as metal, which is why early marks, known makers and complete sets are looked at first. For everything else, three things decide it, and only one of them is about the market.

• How much of it is silver at all. A canteen that turns out to be electroplate is worth nothing as metal, however much it weighs. This is why the marks come first.
• What the silver weighs on its own. A candlestick is a thin silver shell around pitch and an steel rod; a knife is a silver handle on a steel blade. Those fillings are weighed and left out, and what remains is usually a fraction of what the scales said at the start.
• The silver price on the day it is weighed. It moves every working day, so a figure quoted last week describes last week.

That is why this site quotes no rate and works out no figure for you. A figure produced before anyone has seen your marks or found the filling in a base would only be a guess, so we do not give one.

Instead, photograph the marks and you are told in writing what looks like silver and what does not, so you know before you post whether anything is worth posting. Send it and every piece is weighed on its own and checked for its metal, and the parts that are not silver are named and left out of the weight. Your offer lists every piece and what was found in it; offers, returns and payment sets out what else appears on it.

Every piece on a list, before anything is decided

A canteen arrives as one object and is dealt with as forty. Every fork, spoon, knife and server is separated out, counted, photographed and weighed, and its marks read under magnification. Teapots and jugs have their wooden handles, bone insulators, glass liners and hinge pins left out of the silver weight. An insulator or finial that may be ivory is flagged, because a piece with ivory in it is returned rather than bought.

Your offer opens with that list, in plain words. For example: twelve table forks, sterling, Sheffield 1934; six dessert spoons, electroplate, returning to you; one pair of candlesticks, sterling, filled. You can hold it against your own memory of what went in the box before you decide anything. If the parcel does not match what you told us was in it, we stop and write to you before any offer is made.

• Each piece or matched run of pieces numbered, photographed and weighed.
• The marks found, and the town and date letter where they can be read.
• Plate identified as plate, named as such, and set aside for return.
• Filled and weighted pieces marked as filled, with the method used to establish the silver in them.
• Anything held back for a closer look, and the reason it was held back.

One written offer, and then it is your call

We price the lot, not the gram. One figure comes back for everything we are buying, in writing, next to the list of what is included and the list of what is going home. A canteen is one thing to decide about rather than forty, so it is offered for as one.

Nothing is melted, sold on or altered while you think about it. Say yes and the money goes by bank transfer to a UK account in your own name (the terms, clause 7.1). Say no and everything comes back by tracked, signed-for post at our cost, plate included, with any glass liners and loose parts wrapped separately. Say nothing and nothing is sold; if the offer lapses, the lot stays here untouched until you ask for a fresh offer or for it back.

You can also keep part of it. Say which pieces you want back, the tea service for instance, and a fresh written offer comes for the rest while the first stays open (clause 6.3). You will not be telephoned or pressed either way. Your offer says how long it stays open, and you can always ask for longer.

When a set is worth more than the silver in it

A full canteen by a known maker, a matched tea service or a Georgian coffee pot can be worth far more intact than as metal, and breaking one up cannot be undone. So anything that seems to belong in that group is set aside, and before any offer we tell you that it may be worth more to a specialist, an auction house or a dealer, so you can take it there.

• Complete canteens and matched services, especially with their original case and a maker's name.
• Georgian, early Victorian and provincially assayed pieces, which we flag so you can show them to a silver specialist or an auction house.
• Arts and Crafts, Art Deco and named designer silver, where the design can matter more than the weight.
• Coins with a scarce date or in fine condition, proofs, and bullion still in its original packaging.
• Crests, presentation inscriptions and regimental associations, which sometimes interest a collector.
• Caddy spoons, vinaigrettes, wine labels, card cases, snuff and vesta boxes, silver-mounted claret jugs and other small forms that are easy to miss in a bulk lot.

Who handles it, and where to start

One person opens your parcel, counts it, checks it, writes the offer and answers when you ask why the tray is not sterling after all. Your lot is not passed around.

Start by sending pictures of the marks. If you already know the canteen is sterling, read how posting works: when you are ready to post, we arrange the postage with you and confirm the service and its cover in writing before anything is sent. A big collection may need two boxes. Each is priced on its own unless you tell us in writing that they belong together, and we then wait for the second before making one offer (the terms, clause 3.3); when we agree a split with you, we ask whether you want one offer for all the parcels or a separate offer for each.

Silver cutlery and canteens, tea sets and trays and silver coins and bars each have a page of their own. If the silver came out of a house you are clearing, house clearance gold and silver covers a whole-house lot, and how it works runs through every stage. Gold from the same drawer can travel in the same parcel; selling gold by post explains how that side is tested.

What we buy, and what we leave out

Stopped before anything is treated as scrap

• Complete canteens and matched services by a known maker are set aside as possible sets before anything else
• Georgian, early Victorian and provincially hallmarked pieces are flagged for a specialist's opinion
• Arts and Crafts, Art Deco and named designer silver is flagged as possibly worth more as an object
• Coins that may interest a collector, proofs and packaged bullion are flagged before being treated as metal
• Engraved crests, presentation inscriptions and regimental pieces are flagged for their history
• Caddy spoons, vinaigrettes, wine labels and other small forms are pulled out of bulk lots and flagged